November 16, 2009
Chancellor announcement set for Tuesday, Nov. 17
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Southern Illinois University President Glenn Poshard will introduce his choice for the next chancellor of SIU Carbondale at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 17, in Student Center Ballroom B.
The public is welcome to attend.
The two finalists, Rita Cheng from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM), and Barbara Couture, from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL), visited SIUC earlier this month.
Media Advisory
Reporters, photographers and news crews are welcome to cover Tuesday’s announcement. There will be a platform for camera crews in the back of the ballroom.
Poshard will present his recommendation to the SIU Board of Trustees at the Dec. 10 meeting on the Carbondale campus.
Cheng has served as provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at UWM since May 2005, serving in the position on an interim basis for four months prior to her appointment.
She joined the faculty in 1988 as an assistant professor in UWM’s Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business. She became an associate professor and A.O. Smith Professor in the business school in 1994, and has held the rank of professor since 2002.
Cheng served as special assistant to the dean for affirmative action in the business school from 1994 to 2003, and as associate dean from 1998 to 2003. From November 2002 to June 2004, she was UWM’s associate chancellor for academic affairs, then served as associate vice chancellor and interim dean of the School of Continuing Education from June 2004 until January 2005.
Cheng earned her bachelor of business administration degree in 1977 from Bishop’s University in Lennoxville, Quebec, Canada, her MBA in 1980 from the University of Rhode Island and her doctorate in management in 1988 from Temple University.
Couture has served as senior vice chancellor for academic affairs at UNL since 2004. She also has been a professor of English in UNL’s College of Arts and Sciences since 2004.
Prior to joining UNL, she served for six years as dean of Washington State University’s College of Liberal Arts.
Couture held a variety of positions at Wayne State University in Detroit between 1983 and 1997, including: co-director, The Professional Writing Project: A Collaboration of College and Industry, in the Department of English, 1982-1986; director of composition in the English department, 1985-1989; director of the College of Liberal Arts Humanities Council, 1988-1989; associate dean for curriculum in the College of Liberal Arts, 1990-1991; interim associate dean, Division of Metropolitan Programs and Summer Sessions, College of Lifelong Learning, 1992-1993, then associate dean between 1993 and 1997.
Couture is a three-degree graduate of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She earned her bachelor’s degree in 1970, her master’s degree in English language and literature in 1973 and her doctorate, also in English language and literature, in 1980.